February 08th, 2012
In consideration of your life long Adventures: April 2, 1932 - January 29, 2009
~ CMYLIFE

Patricia Ann Gallas 's Story

Birth Year: 1932




Table of Contents





    My name is Patricia Ann Gallas.

    [Pic]

    That is my married name. I was always the tallest girl! I will be remembered for that. I think I grew to be just under six feet tall. I still am tall in comparison with other woman.

    I never knew my biological father. I think my mom and he separated or he just took off when I was a girl. It was just my folks I remember, my younger brother and me. My daddy was my step daddy, but I did not know that until many years later. I am not sure that my parents were even married. I was probably younger than 3 because when this man became my step dad. I never knew any different, at least until much later.  He was very nice to me. I guess he figured if he wanted my mom he had to take me too. This man never did adopt me. He was just the family provider.

    When I was a little girl, let me rephrase that, I was never a little girl. When I was young, I guess I was always grateful for what I got. There was not much.

    My brother Paul was 7 years younger than myself. He was the son from my step daddy. We fought a lot. Of course I was the older one, so I was the instigator.

    Back during the depression the issues of the day affected my family directly. My grandparents lost their home and had to move out. It was the taxes or mortgage that they didn’t pay. I was too young to know the difference. It turned out that there was this large commercial building that was broken into apartments. And they got a dumpy little 3 room apartment in this building. So they rented for a while.

    When I got older I always wondered why they had to leave this big beautiful house that they owned. But I found out in later years what had happened. Now this house they lost had the kitchen where they did the cooking. I think they used a wood stove back then and then they had another kitchen off of that where you ate. There was the dining room; there was a sitting room and then the front room. There were the bedrooms upstairs. There was a big back yard but no kids to play with except this one kid next door.

    I remember my grandmother who wasn’t my grandmother. She was his mother. This woman had 5-6 kids that lived in the same area. She was a German woman. I never learned to speak German. I guess I was too busy to learn a new language.

    I remember one time I got this new pair of shoes and my grandmother said, “Show those to grandpa”.

    I was young at the time and we were in that 3 room apartment and I said, “See my new shoes grandpa?”

    He said “those aren’t shoes and threw them across the room.”

    My grandmother didn’t say anything to him at that time. But, after I left she read him out. I think it was the fact that he was upset because he could not pay the taxes on the beautiful home and it bothered him that he could not be the provider. They were from Germany and I don’t think they really understood what was happening to them.

    My mom met this man who became my dad and we moved out to a different part of New Castle, PA.

    In fact my mom was very strict.  When she said, I did! I think she did not want me talking out of turn because she did not want me running my dad away.  She was married to a man that wasn’t my dad and wanted to make sure that I would behave. You never smart talked back to my mom. She would slap your face. We never did anything special, I guess, except to just be with the family. As I got older I thought to myself it must have been very difficult for her to have married or at least I think she married this other man with a child already. And she didn’t want anything to screw it up and he took care of her/us.

    There was a time when I got a dime on Saturday night to go to the movie. I walked at least a mile to the theater. I paid my dime and got to go in. I remembered the name of that movie the other day. But it slips my mind now. It was a time when at night you could walk on the street. You could cross the street and people you met would not be afraid to talk with you. So I would do this every Saturday that I could get a dime. I think they gave me the dime so they could get me out  of the house for a while. You can understand? I could not go with Paul. He was too young.

    There were not a lot of cars where I grew up. When we saw a car on the street it was like, WOW, look at that. Now at the farm my uncle had a car and I used to ride in the rumble seat that they had back then. That was the outside seat that was on the back of the car were you find a trunk today. Whew! That was so much fun, I thought I was somebody!

    This also was the time when we had street cars down town near the river. It was just down the block from us. You could stand out on the island in the middle of the street on a place where you could stand and they would come along and pick you up. We got to ride them all the time. Wherever you were going they would drop you off and you could walk the rest of the way. This was back in a time when I was not scared to walk in the dark.

    We did not have much money back then. I never got to go to Philadelphia. We didn’t have the money. We really didn’t go anywhere but my grandmothers farm in West Virginia. This was my mother’s mother.

    Mom never really taught me how to cook or anything. It was after I married Ed, my husband, that I think my future mother in law did more for me in that department than my mother ever did. In fact when I was young if you brought someone home for dinner, she was not a cook, so she would make them sit in the front room while we would eat. They were not allowed in to eat with us. That upset me. It was just the way she was even after she married my daddy. That never changed.

    My mother came from a farm in Chester, West Virginia. This is where she was raised.  It wasn’t really a farm, mostly fruit orchards and some vegetables such as tomatoes and green peppers. They grew these for the family and to sell down town at the market. What I can remember is the market was along the Ohio River. You left the farm and went down a hill to the river.

    They had the most beautiful boats. The large beautiful paddle boats. And we would wave as they went by and the people on the boats would stand along the railings and wave back to us on the banks of the river. I always thought that that was the greatest thing.

    I never dreamed of big adventures like these boat rides because I just knew they were never going to come true.

    They managed to keep the farm in the same family name. We had uncles and aunts and all the cousins there. I got to spend a lot of my younger years there on that farm and I just loved it! They had chickens enough for the eggs and to put one in the pot or on the table every now and again. They had a couple of horses and I don’t believe I got to ride them. My cousins would use the horses to plow the fields. They did have a tractor. But they split the work between the two. One had the technique to use the horses the other the tractor and that is how they got the work accomplished.

    I could see as a child how to milk a cow. They had the one cow to provide milk for the house. I was one day watching my cousin milking the cow, shshh, shshh the milk went into the pail and I asked him, “can I try?”

    He said, “well ok,”

    He stepped back and I think that cow knew the difference in our hands because I didn’t get any milk out of her.

    I couldn’t get a drop and he said, “come on get out of there.”

    And he showed me again how to milk and the milk went shshh, shshh, shshh! And I watched him fill the pail.

    My parents would leave me there on the farm for the summer. I really think they just wanted to get rid of me.

    I was born on April 2nd 1932 and grew up in New Castle, Pennsylvania. I believe I went to school here also. There was an elevated train that we called the “L” that came down off the elevated tracks to the ground and the last station was near our home. I still remember getting off the elevated and walking a few blocks through this grass field to get back to our house.

    When I was young in school I had an art teacher long ago that helped me with my art. I don’t remember her name now. But she would assist me with suggestions on my work and show me ways to make it better.

    She would say, ”maybe you ought to do it like this or that.”

    I don’t think that I ever did anything fantastic. But still I love to do my art. I still like to draw and I am still practicing today. I was never a painter so to speak though I did some dabbling.  I could never really get the detail in my drawings to do portraits. Now you can see some samples of my most recent work [Pic] in my photo gallery [Pic].

    I never did become an art teacher.

    I would tell my kids when they did something, “maybe you ought to go like this.”

    This way I could pass on some of my suggestions as she did with me.

    When I was an adult I did work a little at some retail stores. It was whatever I could do to make a little money to help make ends meet. I was not a very good typist. So secretary was out of the picture. No, I was not a career woman either. I never owned my own business. I was mostly just having fun raising my children. I never did go to a school to learn any particular job. I did graduate from High School and put in my 12 years.

    I did enjoy high school. I never went to my prom. My folks did not get me any special dress. But aside from that, I don’t think there was anybody back then that would have taken me. I was just too tall! The boys were not interested in me at that time.

    I guess I figured whatever is going to happen I will just let it happen. I did find a man that loved me and I had six kids. We got married in the 1950’s.

    He was lucky because he was at an age that allowed him to never get caught up in World War two.

    Speaking of World War Two: I was young maybe in my teens. I learned about the war some form listening on the radio or what my parents would say.  I can remember one time I was excited because I was looking out the door for the soldiers to be coming down the street. My folks were talking and I thought the soldiers were coming here.

    The day Ed and I married we just stood together with the minister and said “I DO!”

    I can say, this was a big thing for us. Now we had the chance to live together. We had to wait for this to happen before we could do all the good stuff. Now you know why we had six kids and I am very proud of all of my kids.

    I can remember my folks who would see people with more than two kids saying “Don’t they know what causes that?”

    Then here I come along with 1,2,3,4, then 6. You know I wouldn’t want to be without them. It seems like all the women back then had a lot of kids. (the baby boomers) This was the “sex generation”. Now it’s the “me generation”.

    Today my Husband Ed is no longer with me. He passed away. He had multiple sclerosis, a bad heart and diabetes. He never complained about it though. It took maybe 4-5 years to take him. He would not tell me when he was hurting. He up and left me with these six kids when he died in his middle age. Some of the kids were still young when this occurred. We got some assistance from his pension or social security. I don’t remember now. You really don’t count the time you spend helping the sick. But the time just passed. He was very good about not complaining even though I think he was in more pain than we knew. He loved his kids and would sit in his wheel chair and talk with them. In the end the kids were with him but I was not the day he died.

    He has been dead for a while. Now and again I would look at some men. But I would just think, naaah! But when or if I and the kids can get together as a family I am of course delighted. I think now it was good planning, three girls and three boys. Dawn, Cindy and Jill, Dan, Gary and Scott.

    Of course with kids, you could say my favorite holiday was Christmas.

    Gary was my 3rd child and he was handicapped. There was no help for him back then. He was a little late and we hoped he would get better. I don’t know if something went wrong when he was in my stomach. He doesn’t talk. But he knows what you say. He is smart but he has problems communicating. He would tell you the truth always. If you tried to pull the wool over his eyes he would shake his head and finger at you and tell you “no” in a non verble sort of way. He defiantly knew the difference between right and wrong. He is now living with a family that takes care of him. They are sanctioned by the state to help him and take care of him. It makes me feel real good to know he is happy there and living with a family and is safe. That’s all I can ask for.

    He watched his brothers and sisters leave the family so it was good for him to leave the family also. I will say you never said anything in front of him that you didn’t want him to know. Because he would shake his hand and voice his opinion in his non verbal way.

    He was a blessing and was great for the other kids too. They helped him quite a bit. They really loved each other.

    I think we had a couple of kids when my husband suggested we go to Colorado. I was shocked and asked why Colorado.

    “What are we going to do in Colorado? I asked him.

    Well we packed up our little car and came on out here. I always wondered if he didn’t do something wrong and we had to leave and never told me about it. I guess I will never know now.

    Now my kids are still pretty close within 15-20 miles of me.

    I was telling you earlier that my mother would make any dinner guest sit in the front room while we ate. They could not eat with us. Now my mother in law had so little. She could cook anything and taught me a lot about cooking. I am a good cook today because of her. My husband’s family used a step ladder to get into the basement which was just dirt and they stored their food there. But whom ever came to dinner at her house was always made welcome. They had so little and yet they made anyone feel like they were at home.

    She would say, “Come on we have plenty and we have room”!

    Now this was so different to me. When my mom would tell people to sit in the front room it would choke me up. The whole idea of that still upsets me.

    I want to be remembered as the person who said “Sit down, we have plenty”!

    I never knew where they got the money to afford the food. My father in law, her husband, had a small shop where he made dentures. He did not have a license to make them so he did it on the QT.  He was not supposed to do that. But he would make the teeth for people we knew. In fact it is kind of funny to know the people by their teeth on his bench. We lived in a small town and here are the dentures because he had the equipment and the knowhow. You would see the teeth and say hey those belong to Mabel. He never passed on that trade to my husband.

    I have done just a little traveling in my life. When I was a young woman before I got married I went to Florida with a group of my girl friends. One of my friends had a car so we drove down by car and went to the beach. We got to see some alligators. I never liked those. We did get to play a bit in the Gulf of Mexico.

    I can remember one trip Ed and I took to Mount Rushmore up in Southwest South Dakota. I spent the day and I saw the president’s faces up on that mountain and I think I just cried with emotion. There I was with tears on my cheeks. Washington, Roosevelt, Jefferson… I got all choked up. We later went off and had a burger to eat.